Reports, Plans, and Policies

Reports

Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities (SPARC)

In December 2016, Tacoma/Pierce County joined seven other cities across the country in a national research project to address the intersection of racism and homelessness, led by the Center for Social Innovation (C4). One manifestation of the nation’s current racial realities is that people of color are disproportionately represented in the homeless population. Black people in particular are more likely to become homeless than people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Although Black people comprise 13% of the US population and 26% of those living in poverty, they account for more than 40% of the nation’s overall homeless population. This disparity suggests that poverty rates alone do not explain the over-representation of Black Americans in the homeless population.

C4 launched Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities (SPARC) in 2016. The SPARC initiative focuses on using mixed methods research to identify how people are experiencing the accrual of systemic racism and to leverage that knowledge towards systems transformation.

From December 5th to December 9th, 2016, SPARC collected qualitative and quantitative data on the racial dimensions of homelessness in Pierce County. Data collected included:

HMIS data from fiscal years 2012 to 2016

Tacoma Housing Authority Data from 2014, 2015, and 2016

An online demographic survey of homeless service providers

Qualitative research, including 24 individual interviews with people of color experiencing homelessness and 3 focus groups of providers, stakeholders, and consumers

The local report presents preliminary findings from these data sets. It presents promising directions for potential systems change and further research and recommendations for potential short- and long-term action steps for the community.
C4 has also released the first public report on SPARC’s national Phase I research on racial inequity and homelessness. The report documents how people of color are dramatically more likely than White people to experience homelessness in the United States. After presenting the data, the report summarizes strategies that organizational leaders, researchers, policy makers, and community members can take. The message is clear: to end homelessness, we must confront structural racism. Read the national report here.

Plans

Plan to End Homelessness

The Tacoma/Lakewood/Pierce County Continuum of Care developed and implements the Plan to End Homelessness. The plan contains the goals and priorities of the Continuum to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring in Pierce County.

Plan to End Youth and Young Adult Homelessness (October 2013)

The Tacoma/Lakewood/Pierce County Continuum of Care incorporated the Plan to End Youth and Young Adult Homelessness into the Plan to End Homelessness in 2013, adding important goals towards creating a continuum of services to make youth homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in Pierce County.